Self-Configuring Heterogeneous Server Clusters

Previous research on cluster-based servers has focused on homogeneous systems. However, real-life clusters are almost invariably heterogeneous in terms of the performance, capacity, and power consumption of their hardware components. In this paper, we describe a self-configuring Web server for a heterogeneous cluster. The self-configuration is guided by analytical models of throughput and power consumption. Our experimental results for a cluster comprised of traditional and blade nodes show that the modelbased server can consume 29% less energy than an energyoblivious server, with only a negligible loss in throughput. The results also show that our server conserves more than twice as much energy as an energy-conscious server that we previously proposed for homogeneous clusters.